Thirteenth Sustainable Development Conference (SDC)
21-23 December 2010, Islamabad, Pakistan

Fostering Sustainable Development In South Asia: Responding To Challenges

Forthcoming Anthology

Fostering Sustainable Development in South Asia: Responding to Challenges was launched on 21 December, 2010 at the occasion of Thirteenth Sustainable Development Conference. It was jointly published by the Sustainable Development Institute and Sang-e-Meel Publishers and has been edited by Sarah Siddique Aneel,  Uzma T. Haroon and Ayesha Salman.The anthology has twelve chapters on a diverse range of topics authored by some of the most renowned names in their field such as Saba Gul Khattak, Lubna Chaudhry, Karin Astrid Siegmann and Bishnu Upreti. This anthology reflects a plethora of views and research findings expressed by scholars and researchers on the most pressing concerns faced by South Asia today. The dilemmas and difficulties faced by internal and external actors in ensuring pro-poor governance are pervasive and complex and require in-depth knowledge of issues that have been highlighted and discussed in great detail in this anthology.

The various layers that exist in the quest to unravel the multi-faceted nature of these issues is contextualised by the 6-F crisis that faces this region, that of food; fiscal; fuel; frontiers; functional democracy; and fragility of climate. This anthology captures the diverse opinions of the speakers and focuses on key issues, which are the foundation for positive change with regard to pro-poor governance and human security. The range of topics covered include the energy crisis, the financial crisis, food security, the problems and biases faced by researchers, climate change and women empowerment. The papers encourage and provoke thought and debate on questions such as how can the environment be made more sustainable when it comes to climate change and pollution? How can we make the best use of natural resources? What are the root causes of conflict and how can we alleviate this growing problem? How can food security be ensured? How can democracy be strengthened in order to face the challenges by South Asia? What role can education play towards sustainable development? How can education be improved in the country? Can women be empowered through the use of information technology? These and many other questions will be asked and solutions suggested in SDPI’s anthology in the hope that it will engender further discussion and spark positive change in ensuring sustainable development.

Previous Anthologies

‘Peace and Sustainable Development in South Asia: Issues and Challenges of Globalization’

Publishers: SDPI and Sang-e-Meel

Peace and Sustainable Development in South Asia: Issues and Challenges of Globalization Jointly published by the SDPI and Sang-e-Meel, the latest SDC anthology was launched at the Twelfth Sustainable Development Conference on 21 December 2009. This anthology aims to familiarize the reader with various dimensions of sustainable development in the context of “peace and globalization”. The volume contains selected papers (after a thorough peer review and editing process), presented during the Eleventh Sustainable Development Conference (2008) of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI). It addresses a diverse range of issues such as food security, climate change, natural resources management, cost of conflicts in South Asia, conflict resolution through trade, rewriting history, energy sharing, etc.

These papers are not just the reflection of the authors’ perspective but also carry in them the opinions of fellow panelists and conference delegates. The anthology reflects the mission of the SDPI, as a project of this organization; this is our attempt to bring together students and researchers, policy makers and donors, participants local and foreign, on one platform, to strive hard for strengthening and disseminating the independent research and voices of wisdom for sustained peace and development.
For further details related to SDPI’s publications, please contact Nasir Khan at nasir@sdpi.org

Sustainable Solutions: A Spotlight on South Asian Research

Sustainable Solutions: A Spotlight on South Asian Research was launched on 1 December 2008 at the occasion of the Eleventh Sustainable Development Conference. The anthology comprises eleven chapters based on peer-reviewed papers presented at the Tenth SDC in December 2007. Publishing the anthology is a year-long process in which the papers go through a systematic review process and the ones that get approved are edited and published in the anthology.

The anthology deals with research on real life problems ranging from misconceived historical perspectives in South Asia, threatened livelihoods, policy-led disaster management, challenges and opportunities offered by trade liberalization and globalization, and the neglected role of women in coping with the challenges of non-sustainable development is presented to give the reader an idea of the complexity and interdependency of these issues.

Whether research can play a role in offering solutions to the challenges faced by sustainable development is a much-debated question. While some argue that the research-policy disconnect renders most research findings useless, others contend that the theory-practice disconnect is the reason for policy failure. Yet another school of thought believes that unless means of implementation are not clearly defined at the research level the policy is bound to meet failure. They feel that ensuring implementation is a policy formulator’s task, and s/he should identify the means to turn theory into practice.

It is in this context that policy researchers at the Tenth Sustainable Development Conference, ‘Sustainable Solutions: A Spotlight on South Asian Research’, deliberated not only the predicament of formulating the right research questions, but also took the opportunity to discuss the political economy of research itself, i.e., is it supply or demand driven? What is meant by sustainable development and who are its stakeholders? Why researchers are not able to diagnose the problems correctly or why after having diagnosed the problem cannot suggest the right solution owing to various socio-political and/or economic constraints.

Missing Links in Sustainable Development (SD): South Asian Perspectives

This anthology aims at identifying the missing links in Sustainable Development for South Asia and proposes fillers for these. Questions addressed in this anthology include why benefits of globalization have failed to trickle down to the region's vast population and calls for a process of global economic integration that benefits the marginalized.

Based on seventeen chapters and three sub-themes: Gender and Human Security, the Economics of Globalization, and People's Rights and Livelihoods, the research papers look at channels that exclude women from access to resources, such as land, decent work, and human security, and suggest how these structures can be changed. Many sound ideas about tackling deforestation, compliance, sustainability and livelihoods problems in the fisheries sector have been proposed. This anthology digs below the surface of issues such as the connections between conflict in the public sphere and its intensification in the private sphere, of how globalization can benefit gender equality and women's empowerment in South Asia, and the role of trade and aid in peace and progress, and suggests steps towards change.

At the Crossroads: South Asian Research, Policy and Development in a Globalized World

A collection of twenty-three research papers read at the Sustainable Development Policy Institute’s Eighth Sustainable Development Conference held in Islamabad, this anthology examines the multiple facets of sustainable development in the context of South Asia. Following five major themes-gender issues, livelihoods, WTO and governance, health and environment, and peace and human rights-academicians, activists and policy-makers from South Asia and other parts of the world, discuss issues of sustainable development in an era of globalization, and debate how these problems and issues can be dealt with effectively at various levels based on prior experience of successful policy intervention elsewhere.

The anthology is a joint publication of the SDPI and Sama Editorial and Publishing Services, Karachi. This is the seventh anthology being published in the series of Sustainable Development Conference anthologies.

Troubled Times: Sustainable Development and Governance in the Age of Extremes

This anthology springs from the Seventh Sustainable Development Conference (SDC) organized by SDPI in December 2004. The conference theme, sustainable development and globalization in the age of extremes, was selected as it captured the frustrations at achieving few improvements resulting from the ideas that SDPI has debated and worked on in different capacities as researchers, as activists, as policy-makers and above all as thinkers.

Defining moments in history are frequently symbolized by events that indicate a turn of tide. The defining moment for the 21st century appears to be what has become known as 9/11. While 9/11 has not taken place in isolation sans history and sans politics, it appears to have heralded a new era of viewing the world differently. In the present times, the troubling aspect (not that we in the Third World were not troubled before) is that our troubles appear to have undergone a change. This raises, for us in the global South, important questions of agency and choice. Do we have choices? And if we do, how can we best exercise them in the age of extremes ushered in by globalization, by globalized wars, and symbolized by the events of 9/11. The book results from the strong view that while various issues of concern for South Asia remain, they have taken on urgency in view of the deteriorating indices and post 9/11 realities.

Based on some 42 chapters and 5 sub-sections (economics; politics and sociology; health; history and culture; and, literature), the book highlights the crosscutting linkages between diverse themes and the increasingly complex demands upon the policy arena to respond to issues of sustainable development quickly and effectively.

It critically reassesses strategies for good governance and sustainable development and arrives at ways of making them more meaningful. It examines how much progress has been achieved in South Asia vis-à-vis governance. It questions whether government is more transparent today than it was a decade ago, and whether the governments have kept their promises to the marginalized, the poor, women or minorities. The book shares strategic lessons by researchers, theorists, activists, and creative thinkers from South Asia and other regions of the world. The authors also recommend policy interventions based on the prior experiences.

Sustainable Development: Bridging the Research/Policy gaps in Southern Contexts

The two-volume book results from the SDPI’s concern for translating specialized multi and transdisciplinary research into effective policy measures in the global South. For this purpose, SDPI organized its 6th Sustainable Development Conference titled, “Sustainable Development: Bridging the research/policy gaps in Southern Contexts,” in December 2003 where researchers, academicians, creative writers, theorists, activists and policy-makers from different regions of the world met in Islamabad to debate and discuss issues such as translating research produced in the third world contexts into effective policy for sustainable development, sustainable development as a question of reorienting research/policy connection, and claiming and putting value into the fragmented and disparate work that speaks to and about the third world.

The two-volume book is an end product of the above mentioned conference papers that were reviewed and approved for publication. The book was launched at the occasion of the SDPI’s Seventh Sustainable Development Conference on December 8th 2004 by Maj.(retd) Tahir Iqbal, Minister for Environment at the Holiday Inn.

Sustainable Development and Southern Realities Past and Future in South Asia

This anthology results not simply from a selected set of SDPI conference papers but from a commitment to honor our friend and colleague, the late Omar Asghar Khan. Omar’s outstanding contributions to sustainable development and civil society in Pakistan are well known. We are all familiar with his courageous, principled stands on social and environmental issues, especially his support for the dispossessed, including the causes of labor, shelter, women, deforestation, large dams, and education. In his own words, “…the end for me is to see that our socio-political structures are made more workable, made more just economically and socially.” (personal interview, 2000).
The idea of putting together an anthology in honor of Omar Asghar Khan came soon after his untimely demise. Our challenge was to put together a regional conference to debate many of the issues for which Omar had created the space for debate and reflection through practical work at the grassroots level and policy work at the government level. Omar continues to live with us and through us because we share many of his ideals. While we continue to feel the void of his presence in our everyday lives as well as at critical junctures, Omar has not really died because his ways will continue to provide inspiration to many who are concerned with economic and social justice.

In this regard, the SDPI Conference was a befitting tribute and acknowledgement of Omar’s work as it explored the key questions: Does sustainable development open up possibilities of meaningful change in existing South Asian economic, political, and social structures? Many of the papers assert that these realities do not always compete with each other, nor are they contradictory. They demonstrate that despite its criticism, sustainable development agendas have engaged everyone—policy-makers and theorists—in all fields. This has led to the emergence of multidisciplinary approaches in researching SD and the pursuit of multi-pronged strategies for actualizing sustainable development. Such attempts have succeeded in some areas and failed in others. Given this picture, can civil society in the South negotiate the sustainable development paradigm to address the intersections of structural violence and conflict-generated violence, even as we seek effective initiatives to counter and survive this violence? How do we visualize sustainable democracy in the light of our lived realities, even as we rethink the linkages between development and trade?

This collection of essays, ranging from serious academic writings to think pieces and transcribed presentations is not a standard practice. However, we felt it was important to include voices even if they did not strictly adhere to a predetermined cod for such work. Thus the book has two major sections that address development issues from a Southern perspective. Indeed, this is a common thread running through them.

The essays are divided into two broad themes. The first concerns the environment sector specifically while the second focuses on broad social policy issues emanating from within and outside the region. Environmental issues are integral to the sustainable development agenda; as such they cannot possibly be divorced from economics and politics. The different subsections within this broad theme examine the environment poverty nexus, and issues ranging from forest policy, water management to sustainable industrial development and trade as well as the Southern concerns about international environmental negotiations.

The second theme, captured in the second section of this book, relates to broad social policy issues that impact the lives of people in South Asia. This section examines the dynamics of globalization, poverty, and their impacts on livelihoods, women, changing labor markets as well as the need for conditions of peace and a change in the mindsets of people. Such a change becomes critical if the violence that is part of South Asia’s everyday life and that also has complementarities in the processes of globalization has to be instituted. Without such changes and their complex interconnections, sustainable development would remain a dream.

Pakistan: To the Future with Hope

The options for developing states appear to be dwindling as they try to find a way out of the maze of poverty, social insecurity, depleting resources, intense economic competition and tough global laws to protect the environment. Such a situation limits the possibilities for a very large segment of the world’s population from entering the next millennium with great expectations.

It is quite likely that endemic famine and misery which have targeted large areas on the globe during the present century, will also creep into the nest, and be probably much more widespread.

But this does not necessarily mean that the third world is doomed, in spite of the bleak scenario social scientists, agricultural experts, and planners have been painting. There are other prescriptions too, like biodiversity and population control.

To the Future with Hope, a collection of seminar papers that deal with answers to the challenges of tomorrow, opens a window on the world of possibilities for developing states to prosper without paying too heavy a price for it.

If you wish to obtain the above publications, please contact:
Mr. Nasir
nasir@sdpi.org